


And At The End, Come Home To Me

by ravinilla



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Closure, Dark Magic, Hakyeon Is a Victim, Hongbin Is A Necromancer, Jaehwan Is A Coward, M/M, Necromancy, Resurrection, Tragedy, kenbin is not romantic per say, lots of dead bodies, nothing horribly graphic tho, so many dead bodies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 02:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12808041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravinilla/pseuds/ravinilla
Summary: Jaehwan travels into the deep part of the forest to right a wrong his cowardice costed.





	And At The End, Come Home To Me

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was birthed from [a list of prompts](http://caimani.tumblr.com/post/130275170453) and requested from Twitter. Please enjoy!

Wind murmured through the ever-bare branches of the dead trees. The death had started about half a mile ago; no animals, no growing grass, leaves fallen on the ground and crunching under his boots. He had been worried he'd read the map wrong and gotten himself lost, but the transformation of the woods told him otherwise.

Few dared to wander to this part of the forest as the nearby villages rumored it to be cursed. He, too, had heeded their words until a desperation so strong convinced him otherwise.

He paused to catch his breath and calm his nerves. He swathed his lantern closer to peer over the map one of the village elders had given him in secret. She had spoken of a time she used it herself to find the one the villagers dubbed the _Master of Death,_ who supposedly presided deep in the forest.

He glanced up to the stars. They were dim in this area, so there was no relying on them to show the way.

Despite making this journey, Jaehwan still wasn't sure whether or not he believed in this so-called Master of Death. To him, it was more of an old folk's tale than anything else, having been around long before he was born—how could someone truly believe another lived that long? Their powers were defined so vaguely too: They could take life or give it, control it and trade it. They were abilities beyond belief.

At the crow of a raven, he glanced over his shoulder. It flew overhead and in its talons was a small lantern that shone silver. Jaehwan blinked, an ominous shiver coursing through him. It circled once, twice, and then crowed again. Did it want him to follow? He glanced to the map; perhaps it wasn't such an awful idea?

He rolled the map up and stowed it away in his satchel, and then lifted his lantern. As if acknowledging him, the raven squawked and set off.

Jaehwan thought he could keep up if he walked quickly enough, but he soon began to fall behind and went at a jog. There was something exhausting about all of this; it may have been because the forest was so lifeless, but his energy seemed to drain faster than normal. Dead leaves crunched increasingly louder under him.

The crow's disappearance was as sudden as it came in the first place. Jaehwan froze in his tracks, panting and sweating, and his arm was tired from holding up his lantern. He squat, placed it down, and then dug around for the map. His heart pounded and he tried not to consider that he may have been led on a wild goose chase and now he was lost.

 _Focus..._ he thought, wiping his face. His eyes blearily scanned the map, and then widened. He had... arrived?

He looked up and gasped, falling onto his bottom.

Over him loomed a wide stone structure, cut into an odd pseudo-cathedral shape. Its point was a cracked cross and in the arch below it hung a chipped bell. Torches lit with unnatural silver fire lined the edges and also sat on either side of the opening in front of him. He eyed the double doors, carved of dark wood that looked more alive than any of the trees around him, and contemplated what to do.

Even if the map hadn't indicated that this was his destination, there was no doubt that this was indeed the place he had been searching for, but now that he was here... Its ominous air unsettled him. It felt like hundreds of eyes were watching him, waiting to devour his soul. He set his jaw despite his fear.

_I've come all this way..._

Jaehwan got back to his feet and slipped away the map once more, and then walked up to the door. He reached out to turn the knob, but one door clicked and creaked open before he could. An inhale stung his lungs.

Reaffirming his nerves, he tilted his head to look in. Decrepit pews lined a mauve rug laid out that had holes and tears in it. Candles were suspended midair, lighting the way to pulpit, and Jaehwan gasped at the sight of a skeleton dressed in a ghostly tattered cassock. Its eye sockets were faced straight at him, as if it knew he was there and waited for him. The other door opened.

Jaehwan jumped back.

_Why do you hesitate?_

A voice, deep and lulling, echoed throughout the nave. Eyes widened, Jaehwan looked every which way to find its source, but instead, he looked over his shoulder when the doors closed. Two glowing figures guarded the archway, dressed as altar boys with their hands clasped angelically; their aura was anything but and he stepped away in fright.

_Don't be such a coward if you've made it this far._

The voice came from every direction and Jaehwan could only look up.

"Wh-Who are you...?" he stuttered, holding the lantern closer to himself.

The airborne candles brightened the same time as his lantern dimmed. He gasped and shielded his eyes from the brilliant silver. The light soon settled and his skin crawled with the feeling that he wasn't the only one in the nave. He was right; bodies filled the pews, skeletons, glowing, translucent, and rotting alike. He covered his mouth and stumbled backwards.

_Don't be so rude. The dead want nothing from you. It's you who wants something from them._

In front of the glassy pulpit appeared a gothic chaise lounge, its cushions burgundy and its frame a gleaming black. Smoke swirled atop it, thicker and thicker until it formed a mass reclined against the many velvet pillows in the corner.

Jaehwan's wide eyes reflected the sight of a man—no, he was too ethereal and eerily beautiful to be human—draped in fine dark silks while his skin glowed with the silver lights around him. The corpses occupying the pews all seemed to come to attention at the sight of him. A pair of glowing yellow eyes pierced right through Jaehwan, and he took a nervous step backwards.

"Running, are you?" the creature said. "You always seem to be running, Lee Jaehwan."

Gasping, Jaehwan felt like he had to physically rip himself from the sound of his name in that voice—as if it wanted to steal his soul from him with it. He clutched at his chest.

"How do you expect my help if you're not willing to pay a price?"

Jaehwan was astounded at how the creature's voice poured into every crevice of the church despite no longer being disembodied. The elder who had guided him thus far had mentioned that, in order to ask for the creature's services, there was a payment required and it often came in the form of a soul. As Jaehwan wasn't willing to give that up just yet, she slipped him two golden coins that were not of this world, and only valid in this situation.

"I—I am." He winced at the crack of his voice. "I d-do have something to pay with, Master..."

"Master, hmm? Is that what they're calling me by these days?"

The question was rhetorical and Jaehwan focused on stilling the shake of his hands rather than answering. He pulled from his satchel two golden coins the size of a weighty pebble. The Master of Death snapped his fingers. A body rose from the pews and its moves were jerky and jarring as it came to Jaehwan. Hesitance put him back a step. The stench of damp earth and rotting fruits strengthened the closer it was.

"Well? They're waiting. Or would you rather actually pay with your soul?"

The corpse extended its hand with a flick of the Master's finger and Jaehwan yelped, his hand taking on its own mind and flinging the coins. The corpse caught them with impressive agility.

"Much obliged." it told him in a gritty, hoarse voice. Jaehwan's heart threatened to stop in his chest.

The coins were delivered to the Master, and he flicked them up to disappear into the vaulted ceiling. The candles flashed a harsh purple and then returned to their mellow silver.

"Now," the Master began, and he rose from the chaise. Jaehwan's eyes widened at the sight; he, wrapped in silks that moved smooth as smoke, with the skull of a ram perched on one shoulder and crystal chains dangling from him like the tears of angels, glided forward. Every movement was entrancing and had Jaehwan rooted to his spot.

There were truly no words to describe how gorgeous the Master was, and there would never be enough time to discover them either. Jaehwan's breath was caught in his throat from both fear and awe.

"Yes, I'm the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, et cetera, et cetera. I've heard it all before." the Master waved his hand. "I'm known by many names, but you may call me _Hongbin,_ Lee Jaehwan."

There it was again; that feeling of his soul pushing against his ribs to escape. Jaehwan crossed his arms tightly and Hongbin laughed a sound so clear that the corpses rang with life around them. He could only stare.

"So... Tell me what it is you want."

His tone was not inviting or soft, and wanted to cut into Jaehwan's very core. Words bumbled around in his mind, searching for both order and courage, but he couldn't find it. Hongbin's staring him down didn't help in the least bit.

A rattle of bones hoveled over before he could answer, and a skeleton from behind Hongbin wrapped itself almost... _intimately_ around his back and its mouth pressed against Hongbin's ear. Hongbin hummed in understanding. He smirked at Jaehwan while cupping the skeleton's cheekbone.

"A deceased lover, is it?"

Jaehwan flinched, pulling his cloak tighter.

"Such sentimentality, Lee Jaehwan. Humans and their attachments..." He laughed and shook his head.

Courage flickered in him. "Is that not what you do?" he nearly hissed, offended. "You shouldn't mock what you don't understand."

Hongbin laughed brighter. "Don't be so touchy! I merely stated and observation." He snapped his fingers.

The skeleton wrapped around him disintegrated and Hongbin beckoned forward one of the gleaming alter boys. Jaehwan didn't like them at all; their holy aura was surely deceiving and they were nothing more than a product of magic too black for him to fathom. In a language Jaehwan couldn't understand, Hongbin began to speak to the boy whose robes swelled in a wind he couldn't feel. The boy nodded and turned to look at Jaehwan, who flinched again. They all seemed to have the same sort of stare: keen and all-seeing in the grays.

"Tell the boy your lover's name and he will bring them forward."

Jaehwan stepped back again.

This wasn't right, what he was doing. The dead should never be disturbed, and he firmly believed that... until he'd lost someone so dear to him that he couldn't bear it. If he decided to turn back now, would he be let free? There was no reason for the Master to keep him here since he had already received his payment. Jaehwan wished he might have thought this ordeal through more before giving into impulse. He bit his lip.

"Not having second thoughts, are we...?" Hongbin asked with a mocking undertone. "I do hope you understand that if you're wasting my time, I will spend the rest of yours. You'll get to see your lover again, only perhaps not in the way you wanted."

There was a menacing angle to Hongbin's brow and Jaehwan's blood chilled. …It seemed going back was no longer viable. He had to force himself to take a deep breath.

The alter boy still patiently waited. Jaehwan almost didn't want to look at him because of how his glassy eyes glowed; so obviously not of this world. This was wrong, he thought to himself again, but there was no going back.

"Ah..." His heart sounded louder than normal. "The name... Cha Hakyeon."

As soon as it left his mouth, he gagged something sharp, and it felt like something sliced at the inside of his throat and then over his tongue. He covered his mouth, hacking and nearly keeling over with watery eyes. At his knees, he coughed more, struggling to clear his throat for several long moments.

"This is my favorite part." Hongbin said, though Jaehwan could hardly focus.

The painful coughing subsided and he realized something wet was in his hands. He pulled them back and covered in his own saliva and slivers of blood was a piece of parchment with something written on it in impossibly black ink. It was his own handwriting.

_Cha Hakyeon._

"There we go," Hongbin cooed, looming over Jaehwan to look at the name. "You did so well."

The slip of parchment disappeared when two small hands hovered over his own. Sparks of fire rained down for a moment, and then the boy dissipated. Jaehwan wanted to claw at his throat.

Hongbin laughed. "You might cough up the holy laws if you keep on that."

With a wave of his hands, two more bodies stepped into the aisle to assist Jaehwan to his feet. His skin crawled beneath his loose tunic at their chilling touch and he wasted not a moment to jerk his limbs back to himself. Hongbin snorted.

"That's certainly no way to treat those who help you."

Jaehwan glared at Hongbin, but he only smiled and waved his hand again. The corpses melted into the ground. Jaehwan vaguely wondered if this place was only an illusion. If legend proved true, it was nearly ancient... and Hongbin was too.

The candlelight intensified and the ceiling flared to life. The doors flew open and Jaehwan gasped, whipping around. Several of the alter boys appeared as pallbearers of a crystalline casket, an utter contrast to the dank atmosphere around them. Jaehwan's blood ran cold and his heart palpitated. This was truly happening. He was about to defy divine law. Commit sin. An atrocity.

"Such a lovely one." Hongbin mentioned as the procession passed right through the both of them. Jaehwan's breath was stolen from his lungs. "No wonder you want to bring him back."

The pulpit and chaise lounge transformed into a bier at the center of the chancel. Bone sculptures rose from the ground as protective pillars the closer the alter boys came, and harder did Jaehwan's heart pound. Hongbin smirked, and then made his way forward as the casket was set onto the bier.

"Come, Lee Jaehwan. It's time."

He wanted to turn and run; run from this place and this life like he always had as the coward he was. However, in front of the casket, Hongbin elegantly turned, his silks undulating deftly around his solid, lithe frame, and held out his hand. Jaehwan did not know what compelled him—though it might have been the line of bodies slowly forming behind him, as if for a viewing—to go forward, but he was drawn.

An incorporeal chorus sang hymns of those passed and every part of the ceremony continued luring Jaehwan into a more dazed state of mind. He couldn't think clearly despite the trepidation alight within his muscles. Hongbin's face became increasingly god-like in his eyes. The chorus crescendoed. The casket clicked open with a twinkle.

Atop the elevated platform, Jaehwan found himself next to Hongbin, his hand held regally. Trembling, he peered into the casket. He froze.

He hadn't aged a day, Hakyeon. His body was without mar, in pristine condition, clothes whole, tearless. The only indication that he was passed was the pallor of his skin. It churned Jaehwan's stomach and tears sprung to his eyes. Hongbin sighed dreamily, as if endeared by the corpse and Jaehwan's reaction.

"I can see why you would want to bring him back. He did seem to be something special, didn't he?" Though it sounded more like he mocked Hakyeon's memory than anything. "Hmm... Let me tell you something." he continued as Jaehwan reached out a quivering hand to caress Hakyeon's stiff cheek.

"This is an illusion you're seeing." Hongbin said. "The true appearance of Cha Hakyeon's corpse is _ghastly..._ but I think I've taken a liking to both of you, so I'm treating you to not seeing it."

Jaehwan's fingers twitched and curled.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, since you're so delightful." he continued. "By allowing me to reanimate this body, you're more or less signing his life and soul over to me..." Jaehwan blanched and looked to Hongbin, whose smile was carved into his face as if the most wizened and skilled hands sculpted it. "I'm not telling you that you have a choice in the matter, but I thought it would be courteous to let you know the specifics of my powers."

Jaehwan went rigid with horror. The perfect dimples in Hongbin's cheeks deepened.

"But enough of that. Shall we get on with it?"

Jaehwan retreated slightly, but he touched with a solid wall of bodies teeming behind him. There was no escape.

Hongbin brought his fist down and into the stone ground slammed the hilt of a scythe, newly manifested. The ghostly chorus' singing rose to a fever pitch and outside, the church bell tolled once, twice, three earth shaking times. Jaehwan felt as if his mind was separating from his body.

Above the pandemonium rose Hongbin's voice, deeper than Jaehwan had ever heard, deeper than the earth, born from the very pits of Hell—chanting, chanting, _chanting_ so fervently that all else ceased to exist. Absolute nothingness consumed Jaehwan.

His eyes cracked open once. Brilliant light beamed from the casket.

His eyes cracked open again. Something surfaced from the cascades of brightness.

And again. Hongbin's scythe, its blade spectral, its tang and snath encrusted with precious gems, stood alone.

This time, Jaehwan fought valiantly to keep his eyes opened. Hongbin's arms were spread and a body lowered towards him as the casket's light died. Lovingly, Hongbin cradled the body; Jaehwan could hear his voice fall into rich song, something akin to a lullaby.

It was only when he rubbed his eyes that he realized standing corpses had almost entirely surrounded him, watching him. He recoiled into sitting up and they parted like the sea, allowing a better view of Hongbin. He scrambled to his feet.

"You...!"

With flourish, Hongbin spun around. The ram's skull was gone from his shoulder and instead placed upon the face of the body in his arms. A faint, iridescent glow outlined the body and the sight mesmerized Jaehwan.

"To finish, I'll need something of yours."

Hongbin bid hesitant Jaehwan forward, and from behind him pushed the corpses and skeletons. He stumbled back up the platform, unnervingly close to Hongbin and the body in his hands—Hakyeon, he surmised from the clothing. His heart jumped.

"Wh-What...? What is it you need?"

Chains formed from the aura surrounding Hakyeon's body and Hongbin guided them to hoist him off to the side. Once he was set aside, wrapped, floating, steady, Hongbin looked back to Jaehwan. He smiled again, a sweet play of his lips that filled Jaehwan with nothing but dread.

"I need... a piece of your soul."

Jaehwan's eyes widened.

Hongbin held out his hand once more and said, "You didn't suppose I had the power to bring someone back from the grave all alone like this, now did you?"

Jaehwan could not answer and stepped forward, not wholly of his own accord. Hongbin snaked an arm around his back and their bodies flushed together. Jaehwan gasped and the tips of his ears heated because of their proximity; how Hongbin wore little clothing to begin with helped not in the least bit.

"Be obedient if you truly want your lover to come back."

Up close, Hongbin's face was even more extraordinary and dreamlike. There wasn't a single blemish to his smooth skin and his eyes were without end, so much so that Jaehwan felt he could drown if he stared too long. This was all so very much.

Without waiting for him to stir from his bafflement, Hongbin cupped Jaehwan's chin between deft fingers and raised his face. The choir had begun to sing again, a softer, holier melody unbecoming of the situation. Against his will, Jaehwan's eyes fluttered closed.

The kiss was as if he were bitten by a snake and paralyzed by its venom. He could not move. He could hardly breathe. His entire world, his entire existence brimmed with nothing but Hongbin; Hongbin's mouth, Hongbin's touch, Hongbin's very breath drinking in a piece of his soul. He was at the mercy of the Master of Death and it was terrifyingly beautiful.

His vision swayed, lightheaded he was, and then his senses returned to a steadiness. Hongbin pulled away. His lips glistened in the candlelight as he smirked. Life rumbled among the circle of the dead.

"You have such a lovely mouth, has anyone ever said that to you?"

It was very much an afterthought comment because Hongbin summoned Hakyeon's body towards him next, though he wouldn't let go of Jaehwan's waist—not that he was able to move in any case. Over his own mouth, Hongbin swept his palm and a shining object was drawn out off the tip of his tongue.

Two alter boys stepped forward and at them, Hongbin flick a teardrop of an object—the piece of soul he obtained from Jaehwan. The two boys raised their hands to stop the piece and then lower it ever so slowly. Jaehwan watched helplessly as it sank into Hakyeon's chest. Iridescence rippled over his body and it began to convulse. The chains rattled and clinked and Hongbin began to recite an incantation in that same foreign language.

The eye sockets of the ram's skull began to glow and its horns grew and curled. Hakyeon's body wrenched and jerked and Jaehwan watched on in horror at what he had done.

_Oh God, please forgive me—_

Hongbin laughed, the sound cutting through his thoughts, "There is no going back from this, trust me."

The other bodies gathered around Hakyeon, echoing Hongbin's enchantment, their sheer size augmenting the volume and force. It went on and on and _on_ until light burst from the center of them.

Arms spread, Hakyeon's body sprung into the air. The ram's skull had become opalescent and its horns prismatic. Light refracted off of it as the body revolved and then, with the screams of a thousand banshees, it shattered. Jaehwan's whole being vibrated.

Silence fell.

Time suspended.

"It's done." Hongbin breathed. He sounded euphoric and winded.

The other bodies parted and Jaehwan's vision cleared until he could make out the figure standing in the center.

"H-H-Hakyeon..."

Hakyeon, dazed, looked to his hands and then looked at the bodies around him. He seemed to search for someone particular before his eyes, cloudy and pale, fell on Jaehwan and Hongbin. He opened his mouth in benign surprise. Incomplete words warbled off his lips and he bumbled forth, legs like that of a newborn faun.

"Isn't that just precious?" Hongbin asked as if he knew Hakyeon better than Jaehwan. "Say hello, child." He flicked a finger and Hakyeon stood at attention.

"Hello." His voice was monotone.

Jaehwan's heart sank. That did not sound like _his_ Hakyeon.

"Don't be so downcast." Hongbin chuckled. "Speak to him, make him remember you."

It was only then that Hongbin released Jaehwan from his hold, and he floundered down the stairs in the attempt to catch his footing. Blood began to properly circulate through him again and his mind was clearing of its muddle. At Hakyeon, he rapidly blinked, absolutely confounded that he was truly in front of him. Tears welled in his eyes. He reached out.

"Hakyeon... Hakyeon," he mumbled, grasping his shoulders. Hakyeon's gaze, though blank, did take on a shine of confusion. "Hakyeon, do you... r-recognize me? I'm Jaehwan..." Hakyeon blinked at him. Jaehwan's throat worked around the lump forming. "I... I am so sorry for bringing this upon you, Hakyeon," His fingers curled into Hakyeon's white funeral tunic, "I'm so sorry for what happened."

Hakyeon hissed and Jaehwan realized he was digging his fingernails too deeply into him. He choked on a sob and yanked Hakyeon into a hug instead. The scent off him was not normal; it was not the stench of death, but rather of murk and earth and a certain grief Jaehwan could not place.

"I didn't mean run off without telling you what was happening," he sobbed, "I thought that if I removed myself from the village, misfortune would not befall you and the others!"

His words sparked recognition in Hakyeon, whose eyes slowly cleared. Memories flit and gleamed in his hazed mind, recollections of angry voices, of fear, images of being hunted and caught, restrained... Confusion, rage, terror, anguish... It was all returning to him.

"You..." he muttered hoarsely.

"I did not know they would do that to you to get to me!" he lamented, and agonizing pictures of finding Hakyeon's _mangled body_ with a note attached to it slit through his mind.

Hongbin watched on with interest, amused at the pitiful tale being spun before him. He had shared in on Cha Hakyeon's final moments, tortured for answers of where his lover was and then left on the doorstep of their cottage. It had been a truly dismal end and may have been why his corpse had so much dormant spiritual energy. He was filled with regret over what transpired and how he perished without answers to why he suffered. As much as Hongbin enjoyed watching humans suffer over the loss of loved ones, he enjoyed just as much the closure they sought.

Hakyeon raised his arms to clutch at Jaehwan's back, both befuddled and infuriated.

"You left me, Jaehwan!" he screeched.

Jaehwan flinched and tried to jerk away in his surprise, but Hakyeon held him close and tight, almost painfully so.

"I _died_ for you!"

The corpses around him, who had been silently watching like a flock of crows waiting for another body to fall, wailed with Hakyeon's surge of emotions. Jaehwan was afraid.

"Why do you fear me, Jaehwan?" Hakyeon cried. "I'm no monster. You're the reason I'm like this!"

Jaehwan clenched his eyes closed and struggled to breathe. He coughed, still attempting to break free of the iron grip.

 _"Still_ trying to runaway, Jaehwan?!" Hakyeon growled. His voice was becoming less and less his own. "When will you stop running?!" He shoved Jaehwan to the cold, creaky floorboards.

Gasping, Jaehwan scrambled backwards until the small of his back hit the base of the stairs. He looked from Hongbin to Hakyeon in horror, at an utter loss for what he should do. His efforts to reconcile with his lost love were backfiring much more direly than he could have imagined. The crowd roared, as if demanding his death. He quaked and shuddered.

Hakyeon stalked towards him, dangerous and predatory. Jaehwan's mind grasped desperately at straws for a solution, but was far too slow before Hakyeon was on him, straddling, pressing his body into the ground. His hands, once so warm and soft but now cold and calloused, wrapped around his throat and he gagged. Chipped fingernails dug into his skin, no doubt drawing blood, and he wheezed.

"You _did this to me."_ Hakyeon sneered, his eyes blackening and his skin sinking into his bones. "You let them _murder_ me for your sake."

Darkness edged around Jaehwan's vision as he clawed at Hakyeon's hands to be free, but it was for naught; the grip was vice and wanted to take his life.

"Did you not regret it, Lee Jaehwan?" Hakyeon barked, his voice distorting more and more. "Or did you live out these last days like the _coward_ you have always been? Why did I ever love a man like you? Had I know you would just abandon me to save yourself, I would have killed you long before you lured them to me." His scathing words were blending one into the other.

It was ending. Jaehwan's life was slipping away, his oxygen stretched too thin. Everything was fading...

Fading...

Fa... ding...

Fa...

...

"As fun as this is, are you going to beg for forgiveness or not?"

With a flick of Hongbin's finger, Hakyeon's hands flew from Jaehwan's throat. Oxygen rushed back into Jaehwan's lungs, splashing white over his vision, and he shot upwards, coughing and clutching at his chest. Shocked, he looked to Hongbin who merely rolled his eyes and motioned for him to get on with it.

The crowd once again went silence and the only sound was Hakyeon sobbing wildly, covering his face with bony, pallid hands. Jaehwan gawked before anguish overtook him and he threw his arms around Hakyeon. There was no warmth, no comfort, but there was the moment, and Jaehwan needed it to keep on with his sanity and life.

"I am," he shed tears, "I am so sorry I let you die, Hakyeon. Please, please, _please_ believe me so much when I tell you I hadn't meant for any of this to happen." Hakyeon's wailing did not subside, but he pushed on. "They came to collect a debt—one," he hiccuped, "that was not mine to pay. I thought—" he sniffled, "that if I escaped the village, they would not bother with any of the villagers, but I—and _you—_ I swear by the name of all that is holy, I d-did not mean for this to h-happen...!"

He held Hakyeon tighter, more fiercely despite knowing he was a body on borrowed time and nothing more.

"So heartwarming." Hongbin murmured to himself.

Jaehwan expected no reply and was not sure Hakyeon, as he was, was capable of one that would absolve the guilt and regret.

"I—love you," he lamented, "I have _always_ l-loved you, and I'll _never_ f-forgive myself for letting your life—take the place of mine." His squeezed closed. "I kn-know this is not really you, and I know y-you will never truly r-return to me..." His voice caught slightly and he choked on another cry. "B-But— _god,_ I _beg you..._ _Please_ forgive me..."

In his arms had Hakyeon's body gone limp, his gaunt face tucked into Jaehwan's warm, breathing neck. The emotions had had such _power_ over him that his spirit lost itself to them, to the mania of resentment and fury over the perceived notion that Jaehwan deserted him to preserve his own life. In his final hours, he hadn't considered in the slightest that, although it backfired miserably, Jaehwan had done it to protect him as the man he loved... Through this revelation, his soul felt liberated from the bonds of Hell.

From his reappeared chaise lounge, Hongbin watched the touching scene with both gratification and exasperation. It truly never ceased to amaze him just how _dramatic_ humans could be, especially when it came to something as natural as death, but he appreciated the long centuries of entertainment it had provided him thus far.

With sopped faces, Jaehwan and Hakyeon pulled away from each other. Hakyeon's bony hands cupped Jaehwan's cheeks, stained with tears and blotched with red in a contrast to his because he could not cry real tears, and kissed him. The choir hummed almost joyfully and Hongbin sighed dreamily.

"Well, now that that's finished," he said, clapping his hands and rising from his lounge, "it's time to bid each other goodbye."

Jaehwan broke apart from Hakyeon with a sinking heart. They helped each other off the floor and their hands did not unclasp. Asking for more time would be far too selfish and pushing his luck, Jaehwan knew, and he looked to Hakyeon somberly.

"I..." he began, but Hakyeon pressed a finger to his lips.

"It is alright," Hakyeon responded. "I can rest in peace now, and you may move on with your life. Let guilt consume you no longer, do you promise?"

The burgeoning of Jaehwan's chest had eased, but he doubted he could ever forget what he'd done... It was a just punishment that he never should.

"I... I will try." Tears welled in his eyes once again. Remembering the ominous thing Hongbin said to him before, he turned to him and asked, "Will you really keep Hakyeon by your side? Won't you allow him to rest?"

Hongbin blinked, not amazed in the lest at the question. "Do you think I'm some kind of benevolent god?" he laughed with a cruel edge. "No, your beloved Hakyeon truly does belong to me now."

Jaehwan's eyes went wide but Hakyeon did not seem surprised at all. He squeezed Jaehwan's hand.

"Please, I—"

_"Silence."_

Hongbin's voice was sharp and barbed, and Jaehwan flinched in fear.

"You should be grateful," Hongbin continued, walking down the steps, "that I allowed you this time at all." He cupped Jaehwan's face and traced his thumb along that swollen bottom lip. "Rest assured that your lover boy with be safe with me." He smiled, and the corner of his lips cut into his face so pointed that Jaehwan's jaw hurt. He glanced at Hakyeon. "This is satisfactory?"

Hakyeon nodded reluctantly, turning once more to Jaehwan. A soothing, tentative smile he offered him and said, "It will be okay, love." He brushed Jaehwan's bangs from his glazed eyes. "All will be well."

They leaned together for one more impassioned kiss. Hakyeon pulled away with a more somber smile, looking far more human than he had since rising again. A chain wrapped around his neck, slid out from under Hongbin's silks, and he quietly took his place at Hongbin's side.

Jaehwan stared helplessly but he knew, deep in his aching heart, that there was nothing more he could do. This was their fate as he'd carved it himself. He wondered if Hakyeon would become like the shambled bodies and skeletons around them under Hongbin's claim, but he knew it was no longer his right to worry about such a thing. This was the end.

"You'd best be off, lover boy." Hongbin said, his toothy grin more wicked by the moment. "I'll take precious care of your Hakyeon."

One last time, Jaehwan looked at Hakyeon. Through their distant hearts, they had come to a closure that was not easy, but one nonetheless.

"Goodbye, Jaehwan."

"...Goodbye, Hakyeon... I'll never forget you."

And before he could let himself hesitate any longer, he turned on his heel and escaped down the aisle. The choir sang his departure and the corpses stood at honor. Hongbin smiled with another deal well-finished.

The heavy doors groaned open. Jaehwan stepped into the biting chill of night. Every torch that lined the walls wavered and then snuffed themselves out.

The doors slammed closed. Jaehwan jumped in his skin, suddenly feeling as if everything had been just a fever dream.

When he turned to look back at the dilapidated architecture of the cathedral, it was gone.

Ghostly laughter, deeper than the depths of Hell, followed his broken heart all the way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ravinilla) or my writing blog on [Tumblr](http://homoerotixx.tumblr.com/). I have several more requests left, but hopefully they don't drag me after them like this one did. I definitely didn't expect it to turn out as long as it did.


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